Apophis by Raj Anand

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Raj Anand will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

January, 2022: A dark monstrous twin-headed apparition – Apophis – feverishly races past the expanse of the Milky Way galaxy and bolts to the edge of the solar system. Recklessly accelerating, the sinister rock-dyad enters the gravitational keyhole of the blue planet and continues its resolute inebriated journey – to soon arrive with an apocalyptic impact on Earth.

December, 2012: Five sentient beings born in different cities – New York, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Azores Islands and Istanbul, discover amongst haunting memories of their phantasmal past lives, that it is their destiny to save humanity from the evil forces unleashed by the alien fiends – the Skyllats.

And now, the reincarnated 9-year-olds must rely on their shared, ancient wisdom to prepare humanity for the war across the galaxy that is imminent.

A Note from the Author:


Writing Apophis over these past five years, has been a cathartic inner-journey that rippled across my life. It extracted all of my patience, diligence and life-learnings of my past 52 years lived on this orphic blue bubble, as it floats across a conscious Universe.

Now its journey complete, it was launched a few days ago on several platforms across the world. And I am left exhausted, numbed and humbled by this Initiation.

I acknowledge that it is a book that I have NOT written, for it was willed from me – by the Universe. And now, it is like a child set free – floating away – ready to choose its own path, life-journey and future.

Where it goes from here?

It is for the Universe to decide.

I did, what was willed of me to do…

All I can promise the reader is a book imbued with a magical wisdom. A restlessly paced story that transports you across time, teamed up with five children along their phantasmal, breathtaking journeys.

These 9-year-olds the reincarnations of ancient philosophers, including Confucius, Plato, Buddha, Ptah Hotep and a mysterious another.

Happy Reading!

Read an Excerpt

30.45506N, 130.48804E
Isso Town, Yakushima Island, Japan
January 19, 2022 (0700 hours)
“Peter, what is their present position?” the 1.7-meter-tall Claire with a sharp nose and radiant blue eyes inquired, “Quelque chose d’autre a signaler – do you have anything else to report?” She adjusted her glasses, pushing back her long brown hair.

“Herodotus has crossed into the belt, and is travelling at a speed of 346,000 kilometers per hour,” Peter replied, seated next to the astrophysicist, “I am amazed, Claire, how well the mission has progressed so far.”

Their Command and Control Centre located in a narrow peninsula, beyond Mount Yahazudake on Yakushima Island was housed several floors below an old island home that camouflaged its true purpose.

“You really doubted them? Incroyable!” smiled Claire, when she was interrupted by her secretary with an urgent message.

“It is my job to question and doubt,” grinned Peter and turned around. But Claire had already stepped into a high-speed elevator, climbing seven levels up.

A stoic Colonel Yoshimoto dressed in a dark gray suit and a black tie, stood inside a glass partitioned conference room, studying a large photograph of a Mongolian shaman staring ardently at the moon. The rustic house with rice paper screen walls or shoji, that separated the inner office from the outer living area, was capped with a gray shingled sloping roof supported by polished wooden trusses.

Colonel Yoshimoto bowed when Claire entered and addressed him, “How are you, Koki San? I don’t believe we had a meeting scheduled. In fact, I was about to leave for a connecting flight to New York from Kagoshima.”

“We are aware of your flight to New York, Claire San.” Colonel Yoshimoto spoke apprehensively. “So, I shall be brief. About two days ago we received an unexpected signal from the Sentinel Observatory. We have modelled it several times and have arrived at conclusions…that we frankly find deeply disturbing.”

About the Author:

Savinder Raj Anand is an architect and has been teaching Architecture & Design at various Universities in India for more than 12 years. A long-distance runner with a wanderlust to explore the world, and write stories that traverse across diverse cultures. He lives in Goa with his daughter, a dog, and two cats.

Inspired by his then 18-month-old daughter – when she quoted Socrates – while they together sat in a children’s bookstore in Bangalore (LIGHTROOM) in early January of 2015, he has completed this – his first book – as she turns 7 years old.

Website: https://www.rajanandbooks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rajanandbooks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rajanandbooks/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXPA0eY42VQ

The book is FREE November 5 to December 5.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-First-Chronicles/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-Raj-Anand/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-First-Chronicles/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/apophis-into-the-folds-of-darkness
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Raj_Anand_Apophis_Into_the_Folds_of_Darkness
Notion Press: https://notionpress.com/read/apophis-into-the-folds-of-darkness-1339326
FlipKart: https://www.flipkart.com/apophis-into-folds-darkness-first-book-kleos-chronicles/p/itm7dbd182022818

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Pine Island Home by Polly Horvath

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a print copy of the book *US only* to a randomly drawn winner via the Rafflecopter at the end of the post. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Four sisters search for true family in this story of resilience by a Newbery Honor author.

When the McCready sisters' parents are washed away in a tsunami, their Great Aunt Martha volunteers to have them live with her on her farm in British Columbia. But while they are traveling there, Martha dies unexpectedly, forcing Fiona, the eldest, to come up with a scheme to keep social services from separating the girls - a scheme that will only work if no one knows they are living on their own.

Fiona approaches their grouchy and indifferent neighbor Al and asks if he will pretend to be their live-in legal guardian should papers need to be signed or if anyone comes snooping around. He reluctantly agrees, under the condition that they bring him dinner every night.

As weeks pass, Fiona takes on more and more adult responsibilities, while each of the younger girls finds their own special role in their atypical family - But even if things seem to be falling into place, Fiona is sure it's only a matter of time before they are caught.

Written in Polly Horvath's inimitable style, gentle humor and tough obstacles are woven throughout this story about the bonds of sisterhood and what makes a family.

Read an Excerpt:

THE McCready sisters, Fiona, fourteen, Marlin, twelve, Natasha, ten, and Charlie, eight, were raised in a missionary family. They had been happily and safely moving from pillar to post all over the world when their parents, taking their first vacation ever, having come into a small sum of money from an aging uncle who “felt it strongly” that they had never had a honeymoon, invited them to Thailand, where he ran a small hotel. The three of them and the hotel were swept away in a tsunami. The four girls were, at the time, living in Borneo, in a small cottage far back in the jungle without benefit of internet or phone service, being seen after by a visiting church volunteer who couldn’t continue to take care of them as she had other plans. So the church had a Mrs. Weatherspoon from Australia come to stay with them until someone in their family could step forward. That took a year.

Mrs. Weatherspoon sent out appeals to all the relatives she and the girls could find except for a great- aunt, Martha McCready, who lived off the coast of British Columbia. The girls’ mother, when opening Martha’s annual Christmas card, called her “that peculiar woman hiding in the woods.” Mrs. Weatherspoon said they would save her as a last resort. But surely someone more suitable would respond first. There were aunts and uncles in Tampa, Florida; Lansing, Michigan; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Kingsport, Tennessee. That was the lot. It took a while for the responses to Mrs. Weatherspoon’s appeal to trickle in. The mail pickup and delivery in the jungle was unreliable and slow. After receiving the appeal, the relatives then had to think about it. These were their sister’s or brother’s children, it was true. But there were four of them. Fitting four children into an already- established household was no small matter. Some of them wrote to ask Mrs. Weatherspoon to write them if no one else had come forward. When Mrs. Weatherspoon did, they had to think about it all over again. This took time. And none of them had met the McCready children. Mr. and Mrs. McCready had become estranged from their brothers and sisters many years before when they had made what the siblings considered a “very weird choice,” joining a church that none of them had heard of and of which, for some reason never explained to the girls, they all disapproved.

About the Author:

Polly Horvath has written many books for children including Everything on a Waffle, a Newbery Honor Book; The Canning Season, a National Book Award winner; and The Trolls, a National Book Award finalist. She lives in British Columbia with her family. Visit her at www.PollyHorvath.com.

Website: http://www.PollyHorvath.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Horvath/e/B001IU4S6S/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

Buy Links:

Publisher: https://holidayhouse.com/book/pine-island-home/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pine-Island-Home-Polly-Horvath-ebook/dp/B082S1VSJZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pine-island-home-polly-horvath/1135275323

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